Accidental Harrycrux with a Bloodsucking Snake (long)

[Neri]

No: HPFGUIDX 155102

 
 
>    KJ:
> 
>      This is where we part ways. I think that Nagini is a plot
device to 
> enable to steer us into believing that it is possible to have a soul 
> piece encased in a living creature. Nothing more.

Neri:
I agree that Nagini probably has this function, but nothing more? This
would be something of a waste IMO, especially considering all the
possibilities and clues about her.


>    KJ:
> 
>      I am thinking that Nagini may either turn to Harry as a result of 
> the confusion of the piece of soul in Harry that she senses, or she may 
> become confused at a crucial moment because of it. Part of her circling 
> Harry may just be a hint in this direction.
> 

Neri:
What I'm pretty sure of is that Nagini serves some important plot
point in the graveyard, because she is repeatedly mentioned there.


> 
> KJ:
> 
>     It is certainly there for a purpose. There is a great deal to do 
> with blood in the books including inheritance of blood, purity of
blood, 
> loss of blood, taking of blood, dragon's blood, unicorn blood, wards 
> using blood, blood protections, and DD's little trickle of blood. Even 
> the relationship between Harry and Snape could be characterized as "bad 
> blood". It will be interesting to see where all of these references
take us.
> 

Neri:
Yes. I personally won't be surprised if the final solution that
explains everything will turn out to be some sentence, maybe the
directions for some spell or something like the prophecy, in which the
word "blood" appears and can be read with several different meanings.
This sounds to me like JKR's style.

 
> Carol responds:
> As I said before, there's no evidence whatever that Horcruxes
> can be created accidentally. Slughorn says that the wizard who intends
> to create a Horcrux splits his soul through the act of murder and
> encases the soul bit in an object using a spell. Obviously the
> encasing has to occur *after* the murder that splits the soul. There
> is no preparatory spell, or at least no evidence for one. So once
> Voldemort had hit Harry with the AK and the AK burst out of him,
> causing the lightning-shaped cut that later healed into a scar, and
> rebounded onto Voldemort, separating his soul from his body without
> killing him because of the five or six extant Horcruxes, he could not
> possibly perform the spell to create a Horcrux, and there's no way
> that a spell can be performed accidentally.

Neri:
You assume here that the "spell" (of which we know only from a single
very confused sentence by Slughorn) *must* be performed after the
murder. But we don't have any evidence that this really must be so. We
in fact know next to nothing about the Horcrux "spell".

 
> Carol:
> Exactly. And from a plot standpoint, Voldemort would be invincible
> with Harry dead if he still had even one other Horcrux.

Neri:
We have Dumbledore's opinion that Voldemort, *after* hearing the first
part of the prophecy, still wanted to make his last Horcrux with
Harry's murder, although he already had five Horcruxes at that point.
I agree with Dumbledore that Voldemort's objective here wouldn't be
just to get rid of the prophecy child with at least one Horcrux
intact. He'd also want to complete his six Horcruxes project,
regardless of what the prophecy says. Besides, he still doesn't know
what the *second* half of the prophecy says.

 
> Carol responds:
> Nor do I. Voldemort already knows that the diary has been destroyed,
> but he's unlikely to replace it because that would mean creating a
> seventh Horcrux. One of the soul bits *is* lost forever and he knows
> it. 

Neri:
No, he doesn't. You are mixing times here. I'm talking about Voldemort
*before* the graveyard and we have Dumbledore's word that Voldemort
only learned about the loss of the Diary Horcrux from Lucius *after*
the graveyard.


> Carol:
> Yes, but as the snipped quotes indicate, LV intends to feed Harry to
> Nagini in place of Wormtail, who would have been killed and fed to
> Nagini as punishment for his blunder.

Neri:
In the quotes you snipped Voldemort says to Nagini "you are out of
luck. I will not be feeding Wormtail to you, after all
but never mind,
never mind
there is still Harry Potter.
". This "still" sounds to me
like Harry Potter was a previous promise to Nagini, not just
compensation in place of Wormtail. 


> 
> Carol:
> These quotes establish that Nagini bites her victims and that her
> venom has magical properties that prevent the wounds from healing
> (very odd, then, that somehow it has restorative properties for
> Voldemort himself--unless, of course, *she's* his Horcrux).

Neri:
I don't think it has restorative properties for Voldemort. The
*unicorn blood* has restorative properties and we know this for a
fact. We also know for a fact that Nagini's venom has anticoagulant
properties (not very magical, although certainly unusual in snakes).
The most straightforward conclusion from combining these two facts
would be that the unicorn blood was the active ingredient in that
potion, while Nagini's venom only served the purpose of keeping the
unicorn blood fluid. This sounds like the difference between GoF,
where Voldy took the unicorn blood as a potion, and SS/PS, where he
took it fresh from the animal. 

This theory accounts for all the facts in a simple manner. The
alternative theory regarding the "restorative properties" of Nagini's
venom fails to explain what is the plot significance of Arthur
continuing to bleed for several days after Nagini had bitten him,
something that JKR mentions several times in OotP.


> Carol:
> Or so Snape says. Snape may be using Voldemort's orders to save
> Harry's life, or he may be presenting a reason for sparing Harry that
> the DEs will believe. We never actually hear LV say so, though I agree
> that he probably did.

Neri:
Snape says, in the presence of three other DEs, "have you forgotten
our orders? Harry Potter belongs to the Dark Lord". This question
sounds to me like the other DEs also received these orders.

> 
> Carol:
> We agree here. Frank Bryce is not a significant death, and JKR is
> being sneaky. I think, however, that Nagini was *already* a Horcrux,

Neri:
What's the purpose of JKR being sneaky then? Harry thinks Nagini is a
Horcrux, and according to your theory she really is a Horcrux. Harry's
only mistaken about the time of her becoming a Horcrux, and I don't
see how this affects his plans in any way. Looks like a big waste of
sneaky clues to me.

Neri